Kansas City gives its managers AI agents named Hannah, Daryl and Carla

"I asked Hannah, and she told me I need to talk to Daryl," LaToya Black, talent acquisition manager at Kansas City, Missouri, recalls hearing at City Hall. Hannah and Daryl are AI agents, Cities Today reported, and Black is pleased with how readily staff have taken to them.

Hannah is "the helper". Daryl assists managers in preparing supervisory documentation. Carla gives coaching guidance. "We kind of made it a family," Black said. "That way, it's easier for employees to identify with."

Why agents

The city runs 24 hours a day, so managers on night or weekend shifts often face workforce issues when HR staff are not available. Kansas City also has four generations in its workforce, with very different needs. "Some of them have never had to do interviews, never document interviews, never had to look at a candidate pool and figure out who's the best one, not just the person they like," Black said.

The work followed a request from the city manager's office to explore how AI could make operations more efficient. Chief Digital Officer Andrew Ngui showed senior HR specialist Dominic Schuman how to build an agent, and Schuman developed the idea with help from IT.

Guidance where the work happens

Schuman's insight was that training fades if it is not used. The city had invested heavily in courses on coaching, counselling and documentation, but managers forget much of it. "What we can't control is what people do with the information, but what we can control is the information that we give them," he said. Managers still learn the skills in formal training, and then consult an agent when a real situation arises.

It is a modest, practical use of AI: no decisions about people are delegated, and the agents put the city's own guidance in front of managers at the moment they need it. Many local governments could do the same with existing policies and tools.